More booze, less schmooze

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Toronto’s NXNE festival happened to fall on the same weekend that our fair city was cluttered with Grand Prix assclowns, so it provided the perfect excuse to get out of town last week, at least for a single night of the annual music mash.

I was kind of relegated to the El Mocambo the whole night, and although I missed Brutal Knights, Urge Overkill, Soundtrack of our Lives, C’mon and more, I was able to witness the Montreal showcase upstairs at the legendary venue. It’s always kind of cool to see bands I have seen numerous times in a different setting and different city, and the one-man-band dementia of Bloodshot Bill definitely did Montreal proud with a hip-shaking set that won over the normally tepid Toronto crowd. The Sunday Sinners left little doubt that they are among Montreal’s best, and were probably the crowd favourite of the night, serving up a heaping spoonful of their psychedelic side with material from their soon-to-be-released record.

Capping the night off were the rocking roots sound of the Royal Mountain Band, who provided the perfect soundtrack to the roomful of people drunk on five-dollar beers. Downstairs, I watched L.A. bad boys the Icarus Line limp through a set that kind of left me cold. For a band that had built their reputation on mayhem and destruction, this set of half-baked Stooges riffs was a major disappointment.

Of course, the best part of the fest was the free beer, but unfortunately, you have to go through label weasels and CanCon glitterati to get to it. Saturday night’s NXNE-sanctioned after-party featured none other than hardcore icon Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks) manning the wheels of steel, and with the free flow of amber nectar added to that, I was in seventh heaven. With his dreads nearly scraping the ground, Morris blasted out Nuggets-style stompers, ’60s bubblegum, punk rock, new wave and more—while most partygoers failed to realize who he even was, sadly. As good as Morris, Bloodshot Bill and the other were, though, the highlight would have to be watching Nash Kato (Urge Overkill guitarist/singer) express his undying love for TSOOL’s singer Ebbot Lundberg while laying his head in the cherubic singer’s lap (seriously) at the after-after-party. Kato was chewing his gums so hard he seemed utterly oblivious to the 20 people in the room as he kept blurting out, “You floor me… FLOOR ME!” and singing snippets of TSOOL’s “Sister Surround” while gazing up at the Swedish singer, who was clad in a muumuu. After a while, those of us who weren’t doing Peruvian marching powder kind of thought Kato was a tool, but this sad display proved to be even more entertaining than David Hasslehoff after a 40-ouncer of tequila.

This weekend, Toronto comes to us when one of their best rock bands, C’mon, go toe-to-toe with one of Montreal’s finest purveyors of rock, Mongrels, on Saturday night at Petit Campus.

As an added special surprise treat this week, follow this link and wait for your sides to split: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvFTL6qOvfg.

Tax this, tax that—no more red tape…Jonathan.cummins@gmail.com